50 Indian expats in UAE pledge month's salary for flood-hit Kerala
Abu Dhabi, Sep 12 : Fifty members of the Kerala Social Centre (KSC), an organisation of expatriates in the UAE, have pledged to donate their one month's salary to the Kerala Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF) to help people in the flood-ravaged state.
The initiative was in response to an help appeal made by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to all Keralites on a Facebook post last month, KSC General Secretary Bijith Kumar told Gulf News on Tuesday.
The KSC's managing committee meeting decided that all its 16 members will contribute their one month's salary, he said.
Thirty-six other members also made a similar commitment, Kumar said. They included professionals and mid-and-low level employees working in various sectors in the UAE capital.
The KSC and its affiliate organisation, Shakthi Theatres, have already contributed Rs 2 million to the Chief Minister's Fund, said A.K. Beeran Kutty, President of the KSC.
Kutty and his colleagues directly handed over the cheques to senior Kerala ministers last week at Thiruvananthapuram, the report said. He said the centre had also sent 6 tonnes of relief goods for the flood victims.
The 46-year-old KSC is a prominent sociocultural forum in Abu Dhabi.
One of the five Indian community organisations in the capital registered with the UAE Ministry of Community Development, the KSC caters to around 4,500 people, including around 1,500 members and their kin.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
17 killed as jeep plunges into gorge in Nepal
Kathmandu (PTI): At least 17 people were killed Thursday when a jeep skidded off a hilly road and plunged about 700 metres into a gorge in Nepal's Rolpa district, police said.
The accident occurred in the Jaljala area of Thawang rural municipality when the vehicle slipped on a muddy stretch amid rain and fell down the hillside, they said.
The private jeep was hired by locals travelling to attend the Baisakh Purnima festival on Friday at Jaljala, according to police inspector Sunil Thapa Nepali, information officer at the District Police Office, Rolpa.
Rescue operations are hampered by heavy rain in the area, police said, adding that the exact number of passengers in the vehicle at the time of the accident is not yet known.
